Gonzaga Basketball

The Saint Mary's Gaels punched their ticket to the 2019 NCAA tournament with a 60-47 upset of the top-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs in the West Coast Conference championship game.

This is the first time since 2012 that Gonzaga has failed to win the conference tournament.

Gaels guard Jordan Ford was one of three Saint Mary's players to score in double figures. He led the team with 17 points, while center Jordan Hunter (12 points, 15 rebounds) posted a double-double.

The Gaels held the Gonzaga offense to nearly half its scoring average (90.2 points). The Bulldogs shot 38.3 percent from the field and went 2-of-17 (11.8 percent) from beyond the arc.

Although Brandon Clarke had 16 points in the defeat, fellow Zags stars Rui Hachimura and Zach Norvell Jr. were largely invisible. Hachimura attempted just six shots en route to a nine-point night, while Norvell shot 1-of-11 and finished with two points.

Tuesday's result is bound to have a domino effect on the seeding for the NCAA tournament.

From Gonzaga's perspective, the selection committee may not look kindly upon such a heavy defeat this close to the Big Dance. The Bulldogs might be the No. 1 team in the country, but their hold on a No. 1 seed is far from airtight.

https://twitter.com/Sam_Vecenie/status/1105658259703160832

I still think Gonzaga gets a No. 1 seed.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 13, 2019

Gonzaga is terrific but they should not be a 1 seed. Point blank period.

— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) March 13, 2019

While slipping to a No. 2 seed wouldn't be the worst outcome for Gonzaga, it would make the team's road to the Final Four a little more difficult.

The Gaels' win was the worst-case scenario for any at-large teams on the bubble. In his most recent edition of Bracketology, ESPN's Joe Lunardi projected Saint Mary's as one of his "next four out." Now, the squad is guaranteed a place in the 68-team field.

Bubble Teams across America just realized there's not going to be a lot of sleep between now and Sunday night. Saint Mary's just cost somebody a chance to experience the NCAA Tournament.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 13, 2019

The Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, ACC, SEC and Pac-12 tournaments haven't even started yet, with all six set to tip off Wednesday. Bubble teams still have an opportunity to either impress the selection committee or claim a guaranteed tournament berth.

Conversely, a few more schools may emulate Saint Mary's and play the role of spoiler, shrinking the margin for error even further for those programs with work to do in the coming days.

One of these years, a small school is going to win the men's college basketball national championship again.

Loyola-Chicago made it to the Final Four last year, becoming the eighth non-major conference team to get there in the past 13 years. VCU, Wichita State, Butler and others fell short of the ultimate goal, but Gonzaga is ready, willing and able to end that drought this year.

It's impossible to argue that Gonzaga is a small school, mid-major or long shot anymore, but the Bulldogs will always feel like the original Cinderella story to a generation of college hoops fans.

Loyola Marymount went to the Elite Eight in 1990 and George Mason shocked everyone by getting to the 2006 Final Four. But in between those incredible performances, Gonzaga's run to the 1999 Elite Eight as a No. 10 seed—and subsequent trips to the Sweet 16 as a double-digit seed in 2000 and 2001—will forever be remembered as one of the biggest triumphs for the little guys.

Two decades later, David has become Goliath.

The glass slipper has been replaced with steel-toed boots, good for stomping a mudhole through the West Coast Conference on an annual basis. After dismantling Pepperdine Thursday night, Gonzaga has now won 17 straight games by at least 12 points. With five more wins (three in the regular season and two in the WCC tournament), the Zags will lock up a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament for the third time in seven years.

Yet there's hardly any chatter about this being Gonzaga's best team ever, even though it undeniably is.

Yes, this team is even better than the one from two years ago that almost went undefeated during the regular season and likely would've beaten North Carolina in the national championship if the referees hadn't neutralized Zach Collins with questionable calls.

How has this dominant Bulldogs team flown the radar? Because all of the focus this season has been on Duke.

The Blue Devils are the overwhelming favorite to win the national championship, and understandably so. They've lost only two games in the past three months, and early first-half injuries to key starters played a major role in both losses. Factor in the Blue Devils' 23-point comeback at Louisville from last week, and it's going to take guts to pick against this team in the tourney.

Here's an important reminder, though: Gonzaga beat a full-strength Duke on a neutral court back in November.

Not only did the Bulldogs beat the Blue Devils, but they had a 15-point lead midway through the second half before Duke began a furious comeback that fell just short.

Zion Williamson provided his typical allotment of stat-sheet stuffing (22 points, 10 rebounds, four blocks, two steals and two assists). RJ Barrett scored more than 20 points, as per usual. Tre Jones, Javin DeLaurier and Marques Bolden all had solid performances. Save for an off night from Cam Reddish—which there have been plenty of throughout the season, one might add—it was standard fare for Duke.

If anything, it was Gonzaga who had the ready-made excuse for a loss. Star player Brandon Clarke was limited to only 23 minutes by early foul trouble, and the Zags were still figuring out how to best utilize Jeremy Jones and Filip Petrusev in the absence of Killian Tillie.

They have only gotten better since then. Heading into Thursday night's game, the Zags boasted the most efficient offense in KenPom.com history—and it wasn't even close.

The top five teams in pre-tournament adjusted offensive efficiency in the KenPom era are:

1. Gonzaga (currently) 128.0
2. Villanova (2017-18) 127.4
3. Creighton (2013-14) 125.5
4. Wisconsin (2014-15) 124.8
5. Oklahoma State (2016-17) 124.8

Take out the "adjusted" part and look at plain offensive efficiency, and the gap is even wider:

1. Gonzaga (currently) 125.1
2. Villanova (2017-18) 122.8
3. Creighton (2013-14) 121.4
4. Notre Dame (2014-15) 121.3
5. UCLA (2016-17) 120.7

That latter list is ridiculous. We're talking last year's unstoppable national champion, elite offenses led by Doug McDermott and Lonzo Ball and a Notre Dame squad that won four games against Duke and North Carolina before coming one shot away from ending Kentucky's perfect season.

And those are only the honorable mentions looking up at what Gonzaga is doing this year.

That offense is why Gonzaga could become the first non-major conference team to win the national championship since UNLV in 1990. Those Rebels were a mid-major squad with several NBA players who averaged more than 90 points per game.

Sound familiar?

Gonzaga is leading the nation in scoring at 90.2 points per game thanks in large part to Clarke and Rui Hachimura, two of the 10 best players in the country.

Clarke has been a force of nature on both ends of the floor, blocking shots, grabbing offensive rebounds and scoring in the paint as well as anyone. And Hachimura is basically a cheat code, especially in transition.

For all of the fuss about Williamson's physics-defying leaping ability, players built like Hachimura aren't supposed to be able to run the floor like a gazelle before executing a flawless Eurostep. His mid-range game is also a thing of beauty, even as the college game gravitates further toward threes and layups.

Along with that frontcourt duo, Gonzaga's starting five consists of a fifth-year senior at point guard (Josh Perkins), a sniper at shooting guard (Zach Norvell Jr.) and one hell of a fifth-most-noteworthy starter in Corey Kispert.

If you're still clinging to the misguided notion that Perkins will be this team's downfall in a clutch moment, it's time to wake up. The veteran leader is averaging nearly 3.6 assists per turnover and is a much better on-ball defender and free-throw shooter than he used to be. If he's the weak link on this team, that's a damn strong chain.

Factor in the valuable depth that Petrusev, Jones and Geno Crandall provide—perhaps even Tillie, too?—and this is more than some fun West Coast Conference titan bound to fall short of the Final Four for the 20th time in 21 years.

This is an army ready for a title run through blue-blood waters, punctuated by a second win over Duke should the Blue Devils hold serve and make it that far.

It would only be fitting, right?

Duke always seems to be the final dragon the mid-major hopeful needs to slay. UNLV destroyed Duke in the 1990 championship, and the Blue Devils returned the favor by upsetting the 34-0 Rebels in the 1991 Final Four. Duke survived the Gordon Hayward half-court heave at the end of Butler's run to the 2010 title game. And in 2015, Duke was the big bad boss that put an end to Gonzaga's deepest tournament run in 15 years.

But this season, even Duke might not be able to stop Gonzaga from completing a journey 21 years in the making.

                    

Advanced stats courtesy of KenPom.com.

Kerry Miller covers men's college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @kerrancejames.

Mark Few blew the final whistle on Gonzaga's basketball practice more than 20 minutes ago, but Rui Hachimura hasn't stopped shooting. Few, Gonzaga's head coach, has moved from the floor to the stands to talk with a scout from the San Antonio Spurs. And Hachimura, who'd been tipped off to the scout's attendance before practice, is giving the pair plenty to discuss.

One minute, he's calling for the ball from well beyond the college three-point line to show how his catch-and-shoot game could extend to NBA range. The next, he's dribble-driving hard into the key only to slam on the brakes, throw himself in reverse and swish a fadeaway jumper. And now he's taking off from damn near the free-throw line and gliding to the rim with such grace that a casual observer could conclude that this dunk is effortless.

In reality, none of this is effortless. Five years ago, Hachimura was just a Japanese high schooler with dreams of playing in the NBA and who had already hit his ceiling in his home country. Now he's the versatile 6'8", 230-pound college forward every Gonzaga opponent must plan for and the potentially positionless pro prospect NBA franchises won't let slip past the lottery.

Getting from there to here took more than just an international flight. It took the faith to commit to a college he'd never heard of in a city he couldn't find on a map in a country where he couldn't speak the language. And it took the courage of a boy, who only ever wanted to fit in, to be willing, once again, to stand out.

Few finishes his conversations and crosses the court to where Hachimura, 20, is wrapping up his workout. He congratulates his young star on a great performance, and Hachimura flashes a bright smile by way of reply. Then Few sits next to me and says: "I'm sure every coach always tells you, This is a great kid, but Rui is a great kid. The sacrifices he made to come over here and learn the language and become a player—all the good things that are happening in his life are well-deserved."

---

Rui Hachimura was 12 years old the first time he landed in America. Getting here for a family vacation had taken a couple of taxi rides and three unbelievably long flights over 25-plus hours. But while his mother and younger siblings crashed in their hotel room, Rui walked right out into Times Square. For a kid who had seen Tokyo, the lights and billboards of midtown Manhattan didn't dazzle him. And the throngs of people who pushed past didn't overwhelm him. Instead, they were comforting.

"The people were more diverse in New York," he says. "In Japan, people look the same. In New York, people looked different. It was fun just to be a little brat walking around the city. It was new to me. I was anonymous."

In Toyama, the million-person metropolis on Japan's west coast where he was raised, Rui had been anything but anonymous as the oldest son of a Beninese father and a Japanese mother. In Japan, that made Rui a hafu, the term for a biracial person. And although Japanese society continues to progress as it diversifies, hafus still often face ridicule. Rui felt it in the long glances from strangers and the cold distance of classmates, but he broke down barriers with a perpetual smile and an undeniable athleticism that put him on teams whether parents or peers liked him or looked down on him.

As a boy, he'd tried karate, soccer and track and field, but the only sport that stuck was baseball, where he was best known as a slugger. He became obsessed with American culture, watching The Fast and the Furious movies with subtitles and trying to learn English between explosions and begging his parents to buy him hamburgers or pizza for every meal.

When he came to the U.S. on that initial visit, he noticed how many outdoor basketball courts there were and how popular the sport seemed. So when a friend extended an invite to the junior high team the next year, he accepted. And when the coach told him he could one day play in the NBA, he knew exactly where he wanted to go. But at that point only one Japanese player, Yuta Tabuse, had made the league in Rui's lifetime, and he'd only appeared in four games. If Rui was going to succeed in the pros, he'd have to carve the path himself.

In his final year of junior high, Rui helped guide his team to a second-place finish in a national tournament. Soon, he found his way into the national youth development program and into an elite private high school. In the fall of 2013, he got the first taste of how far basketball would stretch his geographical boundaries, as he traveled to Iran to represent Japan in the 2013 FIBA Asia U16 Championship and then moved to Meisei High School, a private boarding school almost 400 miles from his hometown. But he got a taste of success, too, having guided Japan to a jaw-dropping third-place finish in that FIBA tournament and then following that with a national championship at Meisei. Asked by a television reporter on the court how he felt after the latter win, he responded, "Basketball is fun!"

But even as he became a hero in his hometown, he still faced discrimination whenever his team traveled around Japan. "It was challenging being in other parts of the country because they didn't really know who I was," he says. "They looked at me like a fucking animal or something … It was part of the reason I wanted to come to the U.S. Everybody is different. I thought it would be good for me."

As he did as a boy, Rui responded by trying to stay upbeat and, perhaps more importantly, playing his way into people's consciousness. In 2014, Rui had his international coming-out party when he averaged a tournament-leading 22.6 points per game at the FIBA U17 World Championships. In his most memorable performance, he put up 25 points against an American team led by Jayson Tatum and Josh Jackson. At every stop, he told anyone with a whistle, a camera or a tape recorder that he'd like to play American college basketball.

When he returned to Meisei after the tournament, he got some good news from Yosuke Takahashi, his team's athletic trainer. Takahashi had gone to Indiana State, and somehow Gonzaga assistant Tommy Lloyd had tracked down his email address and asked him to pass along the Bulldogs' interest in his star player. Rui was thrilled, but he did have one question: "What's Gonzaga?"

Before Meisei's season began, Rui and Takahashi traveled to the United States to find out. To make the most of the trip, they decided to see the University of Arizona as well. In Tucson, Rui was shocked to discover a school in the middle of the desert but was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the hamburgers at In-N-Out and the Mexican food everywhere else. But in Spokane, Washington, which has a similar climate and terrain to Toyama, he felt more at home. That winter, he led Meisei to a second straight national championship. This time, he told the on-court reporter, "Basketball is really fun!"

In 2015, Gonzaga traveled to Japan to play in the Armed Forces Classic against Pittsburgh. While the game was a bust—the humidity had turned the basketball court into a slippery surface more like an ice skating rink—not all was lost from the trip. Rather than return with the team, Lloyd went to watch Rui play in person and extended him a scholarship offer. A month later, Hachimura led his high school to a third straight national championship. And this time, he told the on-court reporter, "Basketball is really, really fun!"

---

On his first official visit to Gonzaga, Hachimura wanted to go to a Safeway to get groceries, so Lloyd offered to take him. After Hachimura had collected his pancake mix and candy, he kept asking Lloyd for something else. Hachimura's parents speak some English, and he was studying at school and practicing with Takahashi, but his ability to understand far outpaced his ability to talk. To Lloyd, it sounded like Hachimura wanted Spam, so he sprang his star recruit loose on the canned food aisle. A dejected Hachimura shook his head and signaled that they should check out. Then, in the checkout lane, he spotted what he was looking for: SLAM magazine. Slowly, and with a generous display of hand gestures, he explained to Lloyd that he'd been on the cover in Japan but wanted an American edition. To Lloyd, the episode was at once a sign of the success Hachimura was coming from and of his long road ahead.

Before he left Japan, Hachimura was already the biggest basketball star the country had ever produced. The sport lags well behind sumo wrestling, soccer and baseball in popularity, but Hachimura still had fans regularly asking him for autographs and photographs toward the end of his senior year in high school. He grew uncomfortable with the attention and kept mainly to his teammates and family. He stopped giving out his phone number to strangers and in general tried to limit distractions as he studied for the SATs. In early 2016, on his fifth attempt, he got above Gonzaga's threshold and became eligible to enroll. That summer, he moved to Spokane.

When he arrived, he was delighted to discover that he was joining at the same time as a new video coordinator, Ken Nakagawa. Born in Los Angeles to a Japanese mother and an American father, Nakagawa was conversational in Japanese and could provide translation in a pinch when Google or hand gestures couldn't suffice in practice. Together, Nakagawa and Hachimura explored Spokane's Japanese offerings, eventually deciding that the Sukiyaki Inn in downtown offered the most authentic food.

Those explorations were some of the rare moments of levity in an otherwise exacting first year for Hachimura. In his first week on campus, he reported to the office of Steffany Galbraith, Gonzaga Athletics' Director of Academic Services, to fill out a medical intake form. The process of translating phrases such as "family history of cardiovascular disease" stretched what was typically a 10-minute process into a four-hour endeavor. It was the first of many long sessions Galbraith and Hachimura would spend together.

On weekdays, Hachimura would wake up for weightlifting at 7:30 a.m., go to class from 9 to noon and then again from 1 to 3 p.m., arrive late at practice, barely understand what the coaches barked at him for two hours, and then grab dinner to bring to tutoring, where he often stayed until 9 or 10 at night. Galbraith took to traveling with the team that season, rousing Hachimura from his room before team breakfasts, pulling him off the court after walkthroughs and plopping down next to him on charter planes. When she could sense he was at the end of his patience, she'd bribe him by letting him watch an episode of the Japanese reality show Terrace House in exchange for every 30 minutes of studying. "Rui is our most prized international student," Galbraith says. "He's our most improved from where he was at when he arrived."

Hachimura rarely saw the court that first season, averaging just 2.6 points in 4.6 minutes per game. He would have been happy to stay out of the spotlight, but the Japanese media wouldn't oblige. Reporters regularly trekked from all over the West Coast and even from Japan to track Hachimura; and at the Final Four that year, he saw more action during media availabilities than he did during the games.

"We were coaching that team, trying to win a national championship," Lloyd says. "We didn't get hung up on everything with Hachimura, and he had to keep up. That was the mentality. There were a lot of head-scratching moments, but the flashes of brilliance gave you the faith to keep believing."

Behind the scenes that season, Gonzaga's coaches cracked up as the lost-in-translation stories stacked up. There was the time Hachimura left a practice thinking Few had compared him to Gonzaga great Domantas (Domas) Sabonis, when, in fact, he had compared him to a dumbass after a boneheaded play. There was the time Few told Hachimura it looked like he was getting into a pillow fight in the post, and a trainer had to inform him that it had not been meant as a compliment. And there was the time that Gonzaga's hospitality staff had to tell Hachimura that he couldn't say he was vegan, eat the vegan meal and then take the meat from the team meal, too. But coaches couldn't help but notice that the brilliant basketball moments started translating as well.

Hachimura had improved his play plenty by practicing against big men such as Zach Collins and Przemek Karnowski, whom he guarded almost every day. And he had improved his English by listening to teammates' slang and blasting rap playlists on Spotify. "He always has a smile on his face, and he always nods," Few says. "And I always tell the staff, 'When he gives you that nod, what it means is he has no idea what the hell you're talking about.' That's zero absorption. We operated that first year under about 10 percent absorption. It was very difficult for him to get on the floor. Yet when he was on the floor, you had this marvelous athlete who was running and jumping and playing and was something to watch."

Last season, Hachimura was the Bulldogs' sixth man, averaging 11.6 points and 4.7 rebounds in 20.7 minutes per game. He wasn't a star yet, but when he was on the court, he used the most possessions (24.0 percent) of any rotation player and had the team's second-highest offensive rating (120.2), according to KenPom.com. He flirted with entering the NBA draft and was a projected first-round pick, but he felt like another year in Spokane would solidify his standing—and his understanding. After all, it wasn't until the beginning of this season that he learned what coaches meant when they told him to get to the "nail" on defense.

And although the American media has begun to catch on to his story, he still savors staying as far from the spotlight as he can in Spokane. "I liked leaving Japan," he says. "People don't know anything about me here. They just look at me as like another black person. That was so nice. I'm a little bit famous here now, but when I first got here, I really liked it."

While the U.S. is still roiled with racial tension, the diversity in big markets where NBA teams play gives him hope that he and his family can feel at home.

---

Killian Tillie can hear Rui Hachimura coming. When Hachimura isn't bounding down a basketball court, he tends to shuffle his feet instead of lifting them between steps. And as the scratches against the carpet between Gonzaga's athletic offices grow louder, Tillie turns from the table where we've been talking to see his teammate lower his hoodie and duck his head beneath the doorframe.

Tillie and Hachimura arrived at Gonzaga in the 2016 class, and they were roommates for two years. At first neither Tillie—who is French—nor Hachimura spoke English well, but they enjoyed parroting their teammates' slang and trying to find the right places for it in casual conversation. Hachimura relentlessly described things as "lit" his freshman year, before teammates intervened, telling him that if everything is lit, then nothing is. Tillie and Hachimura would drag each other to French or Japanese restaurants, respectively, and they would watch American action movies. But they mostly bonded during NBA games. "Basketball is an international language," Tillie says. "Everyone can understand it. It brings people together from different cultures."

This season, Hachimura and Tillie were supposed to be two of the most talented members of Gonzaga's loaded frontcourt. But when Tillie underwent ankle surgery in October, Hachimura had to carry more of the load, and he's responded to the tune of 22.3 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. And how he plays the rest of the season will determine just how far No. 1 Gonzaga goes and how high he is selected in the 2019 NBA draft. But right now, two teammates just want to tease each other.

"What's up, Billions?" Hachimura says.

"Hey, Lucas," Tillie replies.

"Lucas?" I ask, and Tillie explains: "He can say his name now, but he couldn't when he first got here. He couldn't pronounce his R's or his L's. We'd ask his name, and it sounded like Louie, so that's what we called him. So it was Louie, then it was Rui and now it's Lucas."

For a few more months, at least, Hachimura can call himself whatever he wants. But after that—after he becomes the first Japanese player selected in the NBA draft to sign with a franchise, and after he stars for the Japanese national team in the 2020 Tokyo Games—he'll have to choose. By then, fans from around the world will want to know his name.

Gonzaga spent its Thanksgiving weekend in a dream locale in Maui.

It left the island as the No. 1 team in the country.

Gonzaga is the nation's new top-ranked team after defeating Duke and winning the Maui Invitational, moving up two spots to leapfrog No. 2 Kansas. The Blue Devils dropped down to No. 3 and are followed by Virginia and Nevada.

Here is how the entire Associated Press poll played out:

1. Gonzaga

2. Kansas

3. Duke

4. Virginia

5. Nevada

6. Tennessee

7. Michigan

8. Auburn

9. Michigan State

10. Kentucky

11. North Carolina

12. Kansas State

13. Virginia Tech

14. Iowa

15. Florida State

16. Ohio State

17. Texas

18. Oregon

19. Purdue

20. Texas Tech

21. Buffalo

22. Wisconsin

23. Villanova

24. Maryland

25. Mississippi State

     

The last week in college basketball featured a slew of high-profile nonconference action, highlighted by the Duke-Gonzaga thriller in Maui. Duke was down 16 points with 16 minutes remaining before roaring back to make it a game down the stretch, but it could not complete the comeback in crunch time. RJ Barrett missed five shots in the final minute that could have tied the game or put Duke ahead, as the Blue Devils went scoreless for the last 1:45.

Rui Hachimura had 20 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three blocks to lead Gonzaga. Brandon Clarke added 17 points, five rebounds and six blocks.

"They're good. I mean they have good basketball players," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski told reporters. "They're strong, they're old, they're unselfish and they play their butts off."

Auburn remained at No. 8 after losing to Duke in their opening matchup in Maui. 

Kansas narrowly missed out on returning to No. 1 after pulling off an overtime win against No. 6 Tennessee. Dedric Lawson had 24 points, 13 rebounds and five assists for the Jayhawks, who also defeated Marquette in a comeback last week. While neither of his team's wins were particularly flawless in the NIT Tip-Off, Jayhawks coach Bill Self liked that his team pulled through. 

"It's OK to win ugly. Winning ugly is actually pretty at the end of the day and we won a game today that artistically wasn't very good," Self told reporters. "But we've won a lot of games over the years where we didn't look very good but we just kind of hung around and found a way, so I think it gave our guys some confidence."

Texas was the biggest winner of the week, ascending to No. 17 after being unranked. The Longhorns defeated North Carolina before losing to Michigan State in the Las Vegas Invitational. North Carolina dropped from No. 7 to No. 11 as a result of the loss. Michigan State moved up two spots to No. 9.

The biggest loser still in the polls was Mississippi State, which is barely hanging on to the No. 25 spot after a loss to Arizona State.

Clemson, UCLA, TCU and LSU each dropped out of the rankings following losses. They were replaced by Texas, No. 20 Texas Tech, No. 23 Villanova and No. 24 Maryland. 

Where to Watch: College basketball games and related coverage are available through Fubo.TV/welcome.

    

The Gonzaga Bulldogs' reign over the West Coast Conference may be coming to an end.

Not because any team is on the verge of dethroning them, though. It's because they could soon find themselves in a new conference.

According to Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports, there is mutual interest between Gonzaga and the Mountain West for the Bulldogs to join the conference. Per Dodd, a decision will come within the next two weeks "in a perfect world."

"In a perfect world, we're going to be making a decision in the next couple of weeks here," Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth said, per Dodd. "But there is no such thing as perfect worlds in the crazy world of college athletics."

The Bulldogs have faced very little resistance over the years as they have dominated the West Coast Conference. They have won an astounding 21 of the past 25 regular-season conference titles, including the past six.

Coach Mark Few has compiled an incredible 535-118 record during his 19 seasons in Spokane. Not only has he built a consistent tournament team, but he has also turned the Bulldogs into championship contenders, making the national title game in 2017.

The Mountain West may provide Gonzaga with a little bit more competition than it's used to. Two teams from the conference made the Big Dance this season, with the Nevada Wolf Pack making it to the Sweet 16.

Of course, the Mountain West would love to add a prominent program like Gonzaga to the mix.

Nothing is set in stone, but it looks like there could be a move in the works.

Gonzaga Bulldogs freshman forward Zach Collins reportedly will declare for the 2017 NBA draft and hire an agent, according to ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman and CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein.

Collins, who appeared in 39 games last season, averaged 10.0 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 17.3 minutes a night. 

Those numbers were boosted by superlative performances throughout Gonzaga's run to the national title game. Specifically, Collins erupted for 14 points on two separate occasions—including a Final Four showdown with the South Carolina Gamecocks that also saw him grab 13 rebounds and block six shots. 

Following a loss to the North Carolina Tar Heels in the championship game, Collins clocked in at No. 13 on the big board of Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman. 

According to Wasserman: "Collins has NBA-center size, mobile feet and soft hands, and he's flashed promising touch on his mid-range jumper and free throws (74.3 percent)."

To that point, Collins shot 68.1 percent at the rim, 55.6 percent on two-point jumpers and 47.6 percent on threes last season, per Hoop-Math.com. 

The sample size admittedly wasn't large, but at 19 years old, Collins looks like a prototypical modern NBA big who can stretch the floor and protect the rim efficiently.

For more news, rumors and related stories about Zach Collins, Gonzaga and the NBA draft, check out the NBA draft and Gonzaga streams on Bleacher Report's app.

Gotta support your alma mater! 

Two-time NBA Champion Adam Morrison made sure to show support for his college team as it had its first turn in the national championship game on Monday night.

Outfitted in a red Gonzaga tank, the retired NBA player cheered on his team as it lost to North Carolina 7

After a missed floater from Killian Tillie early in the second half of the national championship, Gonzaga scrambled to keep UNC from picking up the rebound.

After a near-pickup by Tar Heels forward Theo Pinson, the ball passed hands from guard Jordan Mathews, back to Tillie, finally landing in Przemek Karnowski's grip for a successful layup. 

That quick teamwork gave Gonzaga a 43-40 lead with 14:34 left to play. 

All of March's madness led to Monday's NCAA championship showdown.

Early in the first half, Gonzaga guard Nigel Williams-Goss backed down a UNC defender before passing across the lane to freshman forward Zach Collins for an easy dunk. 

Collins' slam gave the Bulldogs a 12-10 lead with 14 minutes remaining in the half.

GLENDALE, Arizona — He's one victory away from sparking Gonzaga to its first national championship, but a year ago, Przemek Karnowski couldn't tie his own shoes.

Rem Bakamus handled the chore most days. He'd take a knee in the middle of campus and double-knot his teammate's laces as the 7'1", 300-pound Karnowski clutched an IV bag and balanced on crutches.

Bakamus' kind deeds didn't end there. For nearly two months last winter, the fifth-year senior guard carried Przemek's (pronounced "SHEM-eck's") books to class. He assisted him in and out of his Ford Taurus and often ran his errands and fetched him food.

"Thank God," Bakamus said, "I didn't have to help him wipe or anything like that."

Bakamus chuckles as he recalls the story Sunday afternoon, a little more than 24 hours before Monday's showdown against North Carolina for the NCAA title.

The Zags wouldn't be here if not for Karnowski—the fifth-year senior with a beard so long and ginger that it has its own Twitter account. While his teammates reveal entertaining stories about him in the University of Phoenix Stadium locker room, Karnowski holds court with other reporters outside of it. Apparently, "Shemmy" was quite the three-point shooter as a teenage guard back in Poland.

"I used to be launching it!" he bellows in a Polish accent. "I'm serious, bro!"

Anyone who has followed Karnowski's past year knows how refreshing it is to see the behemoth center beaming again—and, even more so, to hear the booming, energizing cackle that was long missing from the Zags' huddle.

For a time, some feared it would never return.

"There was a very high probability," head coach Mark Few said, "that he was not going to play basketball again."

Indeed, after spending three weeks virtually bedridden in his Spokane townhome, Karnowski underwent surgery to repair a bulging disk in his back on Dec. 31, 2015.

A few days later, when the meds had worn off and Karnowski was lucid, he asked his surgeon when he'd be able to return to the court. Basketball, he was told, should be the furthest thing from his mind.

"My goal right now," the doctor said to Karnowski, "is to help you lead a normal life. My goal is to make sure you can walk again."

Clearly, the journey would be long and arduous.

Much like the one he'd already traveled.

---

He wore running shoes with jean shorts and button-up plaid shirts during his first few months on campus. And more often than not, his teammates said, Karnowski put on one splash too many of offensive cologne.

He attempted to play Polish rap music in the Gonzaga locker room, which wasn't well-received. And Karnowski despised the greasy burgers, tacos and fried chicken the players purchased late at night from fast-food joints, which were never a part of his diet growing up in Torun, Poland.

"It's safe to say that Shem didn't have a ton of swag when he first came over here," Bakamus said.

Still, the Zags loved their new teammate.

And Karnowski loved them.

Never a huge college basketball fan as a teenager, Karnowski had heard of tradition-rich schools such as Kentucky and Duke and Kansas. But he was unfamiliar with the Gonzaga until the staff started sending him recruiting letters before his final season of high school.

At the time, Karnowski was considering skipping college altogether and signing with a European pro basketball league. But the more he began researching the Zags, the more he realized how much potential he had to develop under Few.

Karnowski was particularly impressed with Gonzaga's history of success with bigs from other countries. Domantas Sabonis, J.P. Batista, Ronny Turiaf, Robert Sacre and Kelly Olynyk are among the foreign-born post players who have flourished in Spokane.

"The more I read about it, the more it seemed like the perfect place for me," said Karnowski, who was also heavily recruited by Cal. "Once I left my official visit, I knew that's where I wanted to go."

Just as they did on him, Karnowski made quite the impression on people at Gonzaga during his first trip to campus in the spring of 2012. And not just folks in the athletic realm.

Jolanta Weber, the university's associate academic vice president, met with Karnowski during his trip. She said he was clearly jet-lagged from the 22-hour flight from his native country but was polite enough to fight back a yawn as she was briefing him on the school's academic principles. But something Karnowski said in that meeting stuck with Weber the most.

When she asked him to name his No. 1 concern about moving to the United States, Karnowski's reply had nothing to do with basketball. Instead, he told Weber that he wanted to make sure he could excel in the classroom. As soon as Karnowski left the room, Weber phoned her husband, Gary, who is an accounting professor at the school.

"We've got to get this kid to Gonzaga," she said. "He personifies everything this school stands for."

Weber also had a keen interest in Karnowski because she, too, was born and raised in Poland. So for the next four-plus years, she and her family did everything they could within NCAA rules to help ease Karnowski's transition to American life.

Some evenings, that meant inviting Karnowski over for a Polish dinner of breaded and flash-fried pork cutlets with potatoes, soup and maybe a piroshki. Other times, it involved a text to encourage him before a test or game, or a phone call to his parents back in Poland to comfort them when they missed their son.

"People don't take the time to understand how much of a life change it is for someone from another country to come and live here," Weber said. "It's so much more of an undertaking than anyone realizes."

While Karnowski adjusted to his new life away from the court—he was so insecure about his broken English that he waited until his junior year to take a required speech course—it didn't take long to realize that he would achieve success on it.

Karnowski backed up Olynyk, an NBA lottery pick in 2013, as a freshman before averaging double figures in scoring the next two seasons as Gonzaga's starting center.

Even though he looked slow and unathletic at times, Karnowski's ability to pass out of double-teams and his physicality in the paint impressed NBA scouts—not to mention the teammates that went up against him in practice. 

"It's like running into a brick wall. You're not going to move him," said backup center Ryan Edwards, who at 7'1" and 295 pounds is almost identical in size to Karnowski. "I can't imagine not being his size and going up against him. If I were a 6'9" or 6'10" post, no thanks. I would not want to deal with that.

"He hurts your body. You'll have a broken rib after the game or something. I've got bruises after every practice. It's intense."

After helping Gonzaga reach the Elite Eight as a junior in 2015, Karnowski entered what was supposed be his senior season determined to lead the Zags to the program's first Final Four before being selected in the NBA draft.

Everything seemed to be lining up perfectly.

And then, during a routine shootaround on Dec. 1, the giant fell. Karnowski still squirms when discussing the pain that would soon follow.

"I don't wish any of that to happen to my worst enemy," he said.

---

For nearly three weeks, Karnowski rarely got out of bed.

When he needed to use the restroom each morning, Karnowski—unable to lift his upper body from the mattress—rolled onto the floor and crawled.

Across the carpet he'd go, first to grab a crutch with one hand, and then toward the door, where he'd grip the knob with the other hand as he pulled himself from the ground and to his feet. Some days, he said, the entire process took an hour.

"I'm like, 'Przemek, you've gotta get out of bed,'" assistant coach Tommy Lloyd said. "'You've gotta take a shower, you've gotta start feeling better.' I'm having the hard talk with him and he's like, almost tearing up."

Karnowski couldn't bend down and duck into the shower at his one-bedroom townhome, so on several occasions, Lloyd helped him get into his Toyota Sequoia—hardly an easy task—and drove him to the athletic complex so he could use the more spacious facility.

As the weeks went by, Karnowski's back spasms intensified. There were nights when he began sweating profusely.

Karnowski had undergone an initial MRI following his tumble on Dec. 1, which showed the bulging disk. But when he returned for a second MRI after things got worse, he leaned that a staph infection had developed in his back and spread to his left leg.

"The doctor comes out and is like, 'This can't even be the same guy,'" Lloyd said. "'From two weeks ago to now, how is this so different?'"

The source of the infection was never discovered, but it took its toll on Karnowski, who had an abscess on his left shin measuring 10 centimeters long by three centimeters wide by three centimeters deep. 

"A nasty puss pocket," Lloyd said.

An emergency surgery was scheduled to halt the infection. Nervous as Karnowski may have been, he tried to remain upbeat—even cracking a joke when his anesthesiologists told him they were graduates of BYU and Duke.

"No rivalries today, guys," he said as he was prepped for the procedure. "We're all friends here, right?"

A few days later, doctors told Karnowski his recovery could take up to 10 months. And they offered no guarantees when he asked if he'd be able to play basketball again.

Weber and her family were at the hospital every day until he was released, consistently providing updates to his parents back in Poland.

"I just wanted to hug him and take care of him," she said. "It'd be a scary situation for anyone, much less a 21- or 22-year-old whose parents were 6,000 miles away in another country."

Still, Karnowski was anything but lonely in the hospital. So frequent were the pop-ins from players, coaches and fellow students that nurses had to tell him to cut the visits short and get some rest.

With such a long recovery and an uncertain future, Few became concerned about Karnowski's mental health. Not to mention his physical well-being, as he dropped from 310 pounds to 238 in a single month.

"I was really worried about depression and things like that," Few said. "Emotionally, he wasn't in a great place. So going from those dark days to right now, it literally is miraculous, and I'm not using the term lightly."

Karnowski, though, vows he never became depressed—partly because people on campus wouldn't let him. Whether it was Bakamus trying his shoes and carrying his books or fellow students stopping him on campus for some kind words and a selfie with him and his IV bag—which he carried for four months—Karnowski's spirits elevated more and more with each passing day.

Merry Christmas everyone! Enjoy your time with family and friends ❤️ Love,
Santa Przem & his helper Elf Rem pic.twitter.com/TyUambjqDu

— Rem Bakamus (@RemFifteen) December 25, 2016

"One day I was playing basketball," he said, "and the next day, I couldn't get out of bed. It taught me a lot. It gave me a different perspective on my life. Take everything with a smile on your face, because maybe the next day you won't have [that opportunity]."

The further he got into his rehab, the more it appeared he'd indeed get another chance to play. Doctors told him it'd be 10 months before he could run or jump. Karnowski was doing both after seven. Near the end of last summer, he sent Bakamus a video of himself dunking for the first time since the injury.

"That was the first big moment that I can remember where I was, like, 'OK, he's getting back to normal,'" Bakamus said. "He stayed so upbeat the whole time. It made me proud to be his friend. It was a mental and physical grind."

Doctors cleared Karnowski to return to full contact drills in October, just before the start of official workouts.

The very first week of practice, during a warm-up drill, he felt spasms in his back.

"I thought, 'OK, is this going to be a recurring theme?'" Lloyd said. "We gave him a day off and, for a while, never had him practice more than two days in a row. 

"Since December, he hasn't missed a practice. He's done everything everyone else has. He's been great."

Along with his 12.3 points, which rank second on the team, Karnowski is averaging 5.8 rebounds and an eye-popping 2.0 assists for Gonzaga, which is 37-1 and in the national championship game (and Final Four) for the first time in school history. Although he's considered a fringe NBA prospect, there's no question Karnowski will make money playing basketball somewhere next season, most likely overseas.

Karnowski won't think about any of that, he said, until after Monday's game against North Carolina. The Tar Heels feature one of college basketball's top forwards in Kennedy Meeks, who had 25 points and 14 rebounds in Saturday's semifinal victory over Oregon.

At 6'10" and 260 pounds, Meeks isn't quite as big as Karnowski, but he's more mobile. "He's a great player," Karnowski said of Meeks. "I give a lot of respect to him. But I'm not just going to go out there and do nothing."

Whatever happens, people in Karnowski's native land will be watching. For the first time in history, he said, a Polish television station will carry Monday's NCAA title game live, meaning it will be available in every household in the country.

The only problem: It tips off at 3 a.m. in Poland.

Karnowski's father, however, won't have to get up that early.

Bonifacy Karnowski traveled from Poland to see his son play his final two collegiate games, landing in Phoenix around 1 a.m. Saturday. His face was featured multiple times on the massive overhead video scoreboard during Gonzaga's win over South Carolina, and it's likely that will happen again during Monday's championship tilt.

Przemek Karnowski's father traveled 6,000 miles from Poland to watch his son's Gonzaga squad advance to title game: https://t.co/squsY1F9HP pic.twitter.com/hyJy8cLp8V

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 2, 2017

Bonifacy was Karnowski's coach growing up, so the 7-footer would love to make his father proud by capturing the NCAA title. He wants it for his teammates, too. He wants it for his coaches, for his school and, yes, for himself.

Win or lose, Karnowski's reputation at Gonzaga won't change. He'll always be one of the most loved players in Zags history.

And, even more so, one of the most respected.

"We are going to miss him so much," Weber said. "The greatest gift to me is that he doesn't need us anymore. He's become so gritty and determined and confident—and he's comfortable in this environment now.

"He's assimilated into his new life." 

   

Jason King is a senior writer for B/R Mag, based in Kansas. A former staff writer at ESPN.com, Yahoo Sports and the Kansas City Star, King's work has received mention in the popular book series The Best American Sports Writing. Follow him on Twitter: @JasonKingBR.